No zerks on 2017 TRDOR ??

I picked up my TRDOR yesterday. It was built in Mexico on 9/7/16. When I went to grease the u joints today I found zerks on the two on the front drive shaft but none on the rear. Has anyone else seen this on a 4x4 Tacoma?

 

You're about the 4th person I've seen make the claim.
When was yours built?

 

They've been like that for quite a while. My 2013 is the same situation.

 

Is yours 4WD?

 

That's funny, my '15 has zerks on rear shaft, 3 on the rear, 3 on the front. Fucking Toyota is loosing it. Can't build a truck for shit anymore.

 

4wd TRD sport 6speed manual. 2 on front, 0 on rear, made in Texas.

 

Of the Two 2017 TRD ORs I checked out, I did not see the zerks on the rear shafts. Climbed under to check if they had been greased.

 

Same truck here - 2 in the front 2 in the rear and 1 in the middle made in Tejas. The middle one is hidden under a guard and is hard to lube without a needle end adapter for the grease gun (on your back under the truck).

 

Looks like I'll have to check again.

 

10mm socket for the middle one with the cover (I think)...!

 

Wasn't there talk of an updated driveshaft for the 2016,s ?
This could be one of the vibration fixes that toyota has been working on and upgraded the driveshaft on the 2017,s ?
Going with polypropylene universal joints will get you 50,000 trouble free miles . This is whats considered a lifetime part by manufacturers
A big mistake in my mind

 

The non serviceable spicers in my last truck were still good at 120k miles and 13 years. I didn't do any heavy offroading with that truck or anything though.

OP, if you are going to do heavy offroading, just enjoy them for a bit. It really isn't that expensive to have them replaced. If you can pull your own driveshaft and take it to a driveline shop, they will replace the u-joints and balance the shaft assembly for, I want to say around, $100. It's not expensive at all and you can have them replaced with serviceable spicers.

 

Most Tacoma owners don't know what a zerk is, let alone that their truck has any.

User serviceable parts only make sense when users service them. The auto industry caters to the soccer moms and softball dads who buy a 4x4 because it's better, not because they need it.

 

They removed the zerks. Too many people were complaining they were dry.

 

My 16 taco 4x4 dclb only got two zerk on the front shaft.

 

17 DCOR A/T 4x4 Texas build. Only found the one zerk up front, didn't see any on the middle but I didn't pull the plate. Definitely none on rear. Front zerk took about 4 pumps. How can you tell when the joints reach the end of their life? Will the serviceable ones last longer than the sealed spicers?

 

Same concept real gauges were removed in favor of idiot lights, TPMS was added and transmission dipsticks are going the way of the dodo bird

But they managed to add a 'low fuel' light (at least they left the gauge for those of us who look at them)

 

Just making sure...
Unlike the front driveshaft, the rear driveshaft zerks are located on one of the bearing caps and not the bearing cross.
IIRC, greaseable u-joints have a blue seal and sealed u-joints have a black seal.
Maybe even look for missing zerks...

 

2017 off-road here, only2 on front drive shaft

 

What he said... the rears are in a different location... first time I looked they were ALL pointed straight up and I did not see them..